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Putting New Zing Into Cuban Food

By NANCY HARMON JENKINS; NANCY HARMON JENKINS is working on a book about ethnic American foods.

Published: February 24, 1991

ALL of a sudden, 30 years after the first big influx of Cubans into Miami, this lively South Florida metropolis is discovering its Cuban culinary heritage. Cubans and Cuban food have always been part of the Miami scene, of course, since the city was incorporated in 1896. But the food hasn't always been of a quality to stir wide interest. Traditional Cuban food is filling, with roast pork, black beans and a medley of tuberous vegetables as its key ingredients, and its principal cooking fat the infamous lard. (Undeservedly infamous;according to the Department of Agriculture, lard is lower in cholesterol than butter.)

Traditional Cuban fare is still strong in Miami, but in the past year or so, a couple of new restaurants, international in caliber, have revitalized the local Cuban culinary perspective. Yuca, at 148 Giralda Avenue in Coral Gables (444-4448), and Victor's Cafe, at 2340 Southwest 32d Avenue (445-1313), just off Coral Way, have brought zing and a bit of dazzle to Cuban staples, adding fragrance and freshness to traditional dishes. A spray of chopped fresh mint, for instance, tops Victor's potaje de frijoles negros, black bean soup, and pickled garlic sparks the remoulade for Yuca's empanaditas de cangrejo, crab-stuffed turnovers. Together these two restaurants are proving once again that, in the hands of a talented cook, the simplest foods can be brought to heights that will delight sophisticated palates.

Yuca has been open a year and a half but in that brief time, under the guidance of Douglas Rodriguez, the chef, and the co-owners, Efrain Veiga and Eleanor Levy, it has climbed to the top of the exciting pyramid of Miami restaurants. Named after the bland, starchy cassava that is to Cuban cuisine what potatoes are to Ireland, it's also an acronym for Young Urban Cuban American and that's exactly the clientele that haunts this long, narrow, stark white room splashed with the colorful oil paintings of Roberto Polo. In late April the restaurant will move to larger premises across the street at 177 Giralda Avenue (same phone number).

Mr. Rodriguez is not afraid of a hint of fire in his food: a little smoked chili enlivens the rich flavor of roasted pumpkin soup ($5.50), sometimes on the menu as a special, while his braised oxtail comes with a chili-spiced burgundy sauce, tamed by traditional accompaniments of fufu (ripe plantain puree) and white rice ($16.95). There are also classic family preparations on the menu: Yuca's ajiaco is the best I had in Miami. A thick stew made with chunks of those much-loved tubers, yuca, malanga and boniato (a sweet potato), as well as calabaza (sweet Caribbean pumpkin) and generous pieces of pork, chicken and chorizo sausage, ajiaco (it's pronounced ah-HIAH-ko) is Cuban comfort food par excellence. Properly made, as it is here, ajiaco is slightly sweet, very meaty and not so highly seasoned that you can't detect the subtle differences among those root vegetables.

Where Yuca can be startlingly unorthodox (malanga pancakes with caviar, for instance), Victor's Cafe, a serene and elegant offshoot of a well-known Manhattan restaurant at 52d Street west of Broadway, , is somewhat more traditional. The decor suggests a dream country of the Caribbean, with vanilla- and apricot-colored stucco walls, warm terra cotta and enameled tiles, fountains, palms and even strolling guitarists. Sitting in the graceful, columned courtyard, sipping a mojito cocktail (a sort of rum-based mint julep), you could quickly imagine yourself back in Old Havana. But this is modern Cuban food; that is, traditional preparations with a refinement and elegance that put them clearly at the far end of the 20th century.

The crisply roasted dough of an empanada served as an appetizer, for instance, is made from yuca and wrapped around lobster pieces ($5.95). Masitas de puerco fritas, deep-fried cubes of meaty pork, are nearly ubiquitous in Cuban restaurants of all calibers. At Victor's, the masitas, , crisp on the outside, tender within, are fragrant with the cumin-scented sauce in which they are marinated before frying; chicharrones de pollo, deep-fried chicken chunks, are similarly marinated in bitter-orange juice, garlic and oregano before cooking. (Masitas are $11.95; chicarrones are $13.95.) Unfortunately, not everything is as successful -- this is a kitchen still somewhat uncertain of its ground. Fish dishes like mariscada, a mixed seafood stew, and a filet of pargo (red snapper) were overcooked and at the same time served lukewarm. Still, for anyone interested in where Cuban cuisine is going, a visit to both these establishments is in order.

MIAMI'S non-Cuban chefs and restaurateurs are also discovering the charm of Cuban ingredients and adding them to thoroughly "American" menus. For instance, Norman van Aken, at Stars & Stripes Cafe in the Betsy Ross Hotel, 1440 Ocean Drive (531-3310), in the Art Deco district of Miami Beach, serves crisply satisfying bacalao fritters made of refreshed salt cod and potatoes, a Cuban appetizer, with a remarkable ancho chili and olive hollandaise. At Chef Allen's, 19088 N.E. 29th Avenue (935-2900), in Aventura, north North Miami Beach, Allen Susser updates a favorite, combining grilled sweet plantains with blackened red snapper and a bitter-orange sauce.